TNT Airways is scheduled to be sold before TNT Express is taken over by US rival UPS in order tomeet EU airline ownership rules.
UPS confirmed that the ownership structure of the Liege-based airline has to change underEuropean Union regulations about foreign ownership of EU-based airlines. “UPS and TNT plan to sell(TNT Airways) to comply with EU regulations,” UPS spokesman Norman Black told international mediaon Friday. Officials were not immediately available to comment further to CEP-Research.
In their merger agreement that was filed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), UPSand TNT said that “a legal, organisational and management structure” for the airline that compliedwith all relevant laws was needed by the time the deal was closed, which is expected to be in theJune – September third quarter of this year.
At the March 19 press conference to announce the TNT Express acquisition, UPS executivesstressed that TNT’s air hub at Liege was critical and would be kept open in future, although theydid add that UPS’ Cologne hub would be the major European air hub in the future.
TNT’s Global Air Network organisation runs two separate operations at Liege airport: TNT Airwaysand TNT Euro Hub. TNT Airways, with 450 employees (including 250 pilots) operates a fleet of some45 planes and flies to 68 European airports and seven non-European airports. The air fleetincludes four B747s, three B777s, and numerous medium-sized cargo planes including A300s, B757s,B737s and BAE 146s.
The 75,000 sqm Euro Hub, with some 1,500 employees, sorts some 90,000 parcels (400 tonnes) anight. About 70% of TNT’s worldwide shipments transit through Liege. The facility opened in 1998with an initial investment of €62 million and has been subsequently expanded with a further €80million of investments over the last decade.
In comparison, UPS is currently in the midst of a $200 million expansion of its 30,000 sqmEuropean air hub at Cologne. This will increase sorting capacity by 70% from the present 110,000 to190,000 packages per hour upon completion at the end of 2013. UPS employs some 2,300 people at theCologne air hub, with a further 200 jobs expected once the expansion is completed. Some 72 flights,both intercontinental and intra-European, operate every night to and from the UPS hub.
